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The material remains of the Picts are extremely impressive, though nowhere numerous. About
200 carved symbol stones and rock inscriptions have survived, mainly in the north and east of the
Scottish mainland and on Orkney. Even though they are for the most part badly weathered, the
symbol stones reveal a mastery of naturalistic relief and abstract carvings. Most of the inscriptions
and carvings date from the fourth to the seventh centuries AD, the later ones incorporating Christian
symbols in the wake of St Columba’s conversions. They are not close to any of the other
contemporary styles to be found in the Isles, not Roman, Saxon or even Irish, adding further
mystique to the Pictish enigma.
The Picts also left behind a collection of remarkable stone structures unlike any other in the
Isles – the brochs. These take your breath away, especially when you realize that they were built
over 2,000 years ago. Their form is similar wherever they are found. Round towers, tapering
inwards at the top rather like a power station cooling tower, these huge stone buildings were once
the largest structures in the whole of the Isles. Brochs typically enclose a central area 10–12
metres in diameter, with walls only slightly lower. They have double-skinned walls, held together
by flat stones which form inner galleries within the walls. As well as providing storage space,
these gaps, just like cavity walls in modern houses, would have insulated the interior and kept the
heat in. This is easiest to see where there has been a partial collapse, such as at Dun Telve, near
Glenelg on the mainland opposite Skye, or at Dun Carloway on the west coast of Lewis, a few
miles north of the stone circle at Calanais. From gaps left in the inner walls, it looks as if the
central area was fitted with wooden galleries, the whole structure resembling Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre in miniature. The brochs were not roofed, so fires in the central living area could vent
straight into the open air.
At first sight brochs appear to have been built for defence and they would certainly have been
extremely difficult to attack successfully. The view from the ramparts would have given plenty of
warning of any hostile approach and the blank, windowless external walls were impregnable.
However, it is not at all certain whether brochs were built to withstand attack – or just to show off.
Some archaeologists believe they are simply a natural evolution of the much smaller Pictish
roundhouses typical of the region. Since there is no evidence of attacks, such as the reddening that
discolours the stone of buildings that have been set alight, it is more likely that their impressive
bulk was valued for just that purpose – to impress. The standard design, and the relatively short
time over which the brochs were built, in the first and second centuries BC, suggests that there may
have been mobile teams of masons and labourers who toured the Highlands and Islands and built
brochs to order. That in turn must mean that the local landowners were wealthy enough to afford it
– and it isn’t hard to imagine how rivalry between them would be a spur to taller and taller brochs.
Finds at the broch at Gurness on Orkney show that the local aristocrat who lived there was not
merely active locally. Fragments of Roman amphorae, or wine carriers, link Gurness to a recorded
visit of submission by a Pictish king to the Emperor Claudius at Colchester in AD 43. Whoever the
Picts were, they were certainly not primitive relics of the Stone Age.
There has always been a lingering question about what language the Picts spoke. For many
years, some linguists believed they may have spoken an ancient tongue unrelated to the Indo-
European family which embraces almost all other European languages. To me, and probably to you,
while I can see there might be a family connection between, say, Italian and Spanish, it is not at all
obvious that German, Portuguese and French are all related. However, be assured that they are and